Southeast Asia Archive

Last month, India agreed to help Myanmar build offshore patrol vessels in an effort to improve ties. In an email interview, Abhijit Singh, a research fellow at New Delhi’s National Maritime Foundation tracking political and strategic developments in West and South Asia, explained India’s strategic relationships in Southeast Asia. WPR: Who are India’s main security partners in Southeast Asia and how expansive are these ties? Abhijit Singh: India’s principal security partners in Southeast Asia are Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. Security cooperation with these countries is mostly limited to defense dialogues, low-level military exchanges, modest military aid and training, and […]

The small island-state of Timor-Leste exemplifies the challenge of resource-based development for a poor country well-endowed with a valuable natural resource. Timor-Leste, which gained its independence in 2002, has accumulated $13 billion in its petroleum fund in less than a decade. Some of the largest multinational oil companies are operating in the country, and the revenues continue to flow. And yet, while Timor-Leste has seen very notable improvements in its development indicators in the past few years, it continues to face a massive challenge of converting financial wealth into economic development. There are also heated debates about how to spend […]

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s recently announced asylum policy made headlines around the world. The approach is punitive, insisting that no asylum-seeker who arrives in Australia by boat without a visa will ever be settled there. Instead, asylum-seekers’ claims will be processed in Papua New Guinea; if successful, that is where they will be resettled. The policy also comes against the backdrop of a steady increase in boat arrivals, or irregular maritime arrivals (IMAs) in the language of Australian bureaucracy. In 2010-2011 there were 4,750 IMAs, while in 2011-2012 there were 8,092. Current estimates are for even more during 2012-2013. […]